Keep Your Eyes Open

As we had already noticed that Ralph Ellison was using black and white as adjectives for almost everything, the reader is prone to noticing these colors and how they are used. Therefore, when the orator talks of the "White House," it is impossible for the reader to ignore the fact that the president's house is called white. The irony of this fact that is now given no second thought stands out, bringing about a feeling of unfairness towards the government of the country.

The colors are also used in other instances that remind the reader about the social constructs behind each race. When the orator continues talking about the Founder, he says "your parents followed this remarkable man across the black sea of prejudice, safely out of the land of ignorance, through the storms of fear and anger." (120) That the sea of prejudice, which could have been any color, is depicted as black stands out just the same, as it makes the reader see prejudice as something of black people. The blacks, who were prejudiced, ignorant, and living in fear and anger, were helped by the Founder to find a better road to follow.

A sentence that I found really interesting was when the narrator said he was "stumbling along, holding on desperately to one of my eyes in order to keep from bursting out my brain against some familiar object swerved into my path by my distorted vision." (147) This is not the normal way to say "I felt bad". This could mean that the narrator is trying to hold on to his points of view, but his ideas and his thoughts are in danger of bursting out his brain. At the same time, he knows that the obstacle in his path is "familiar," probably consisting on another human being or on his own obstacles. However, the sentence clarifies that his "distorted vision" is what causes the obstacles to get in his path, so he realizes his vision is distorted, and it's causing him all the troubles he has had. His distorted vision is how he sees whites in a weird way, considering himself inferior to their power. The narrator clearly has a path, and a dream he wants to accomplish in life, but he secretly realizes that his own way of seeing things is what denies him of great opportunities.

The vet also gives a kind of explanation of why and how the narrator is an invisible man. He says "they wouldn't see you because they don't expect you to know anything, since they believe they've taken care of that." (154) Here, it becomes apparent that the invisibility of black men is entirely their own fault, as they allow whites to believe that blacks don't know anything so are not worthy of their care. However, the vet says they have "taken care of that," which could mean that they don't want blacks to know anything, so that they never become a threat to their society. This also implies, though, that blacks can reverse their invisibility, if they only begin to know.